The present invention relates to an egg concentrate product and more particularly an egg concentrate product which substantially maintains the functional characteristics of whole eggs, and is convenient to use, and in a number of preferred embodiments has a long shelf life. The present invention also relates to a process of making such an egg product, and also a method of utilizing such an egg concentrate product in making bakery products and/or other food products where eggs are used.
Fresh eggs are commonly prepared without being combined with any other food product, as in fried eggs, scrambled eggs, etc. Also eggs are commonly used in combination with other food ingredients to make various food products. Among such products are bakery food products, such as cakes, bread, muffins, pancakes, and also in making mayonnaise and other food products.
In general, shell eggs are considered to have quite desirable characteristics which contribute substantially to the quality of products such as cakes, mayonnaise, etc. Thus, cakes which are made xe2x80x9cfrom scratchxe2x80x9d are generally considered to be superior in comparison with, for example, cakes which are made from dried egg powder. Thus when dried egg powder is used in making a cake it may be desirable (or as a practical matter necessary) to add a certain amount of fresh egg product to make a desirable end product.
With regard to the use of eggs in bakery products (and also other food products), in addition to the taste and nutritional value provided by the eggs or egg products, eggs also can contribute as a foaming agent, an emulsifier, and a bonding agent (adding cohesiveness to the overall structure). In simpler terms, in acting as a foaming agent, the batter is able to be formed with xe2x80x9cbubblesxe2x80x9d when the product is subjected to shear by mixing. Then as the mixing continues, the larger bubbles are broken up into small bubbles. This increases the volume of the product, often to several times the original volume of the food product.
As an emulsifier, the eggs or egg products, can facilitate the mixing or dispersion of the ingredients. The cohesiveness which the egg product contributes relates its ability to act as a xe2x80x9cgluexe2x80x9d or bonding agent to maintain the food product as a foam structure. Thus, one of the desirable qualities in many types of cakes is for the cake structure to occupy a greater volume relative to its total weight, this being often referred to the xe2x80x9clightnessxe2x80x9d of the cake.
However, the use of fresh eggs in making such things as cakes is in some respects inconvenient and/or time consuming. This is particularly true in a high volume commercial operation where, a large quantity of eggs must be used for the batches of food product being produced. Accordingly, there have been various attempts over the last several decades to find ways to make the use of eggs or egg products more cost effective in a commercial operation.
When eggs are to be shipped to a commercial operation, quite commonly the whole egg is removed from the shell at the egg processing location and then shipped in refrigerated containers to be delivered to the user. Or the whole egg can be frozen and shipped to the operation. Thus, there are significant costs not only in the transportation of the egg product, but also the expense of maintaining refrigerating or freezing equipment at the point of use.
A possible alternative to refrigerating or freezing the eggs or egg product is to dehydrate the eggs or egg product to a powdered form so that it would have a longer shelf life. Also, the removal of the water content (thus reducing the weight of the egg product) lowers shipping costs. However, the drying of the fresh eggs results in loss of function, and sometimes in a substantial loss of function. The protein in albumen is a very complex material, and in drying it, it becomes reconfigured. The same is true of the yolk. Also, if the albumen and the yolk are dehydrated together, the two components would normally tend to combine with one another in a manner to result in a substantial loss of function.
For some commercial applications, the fresh whole eggs are treated in a manner to separate the yolk from the albumen. In a typical egg, the egg is made up of 33% xe2x80x9cpurexe2x80x9d liquid yolk and 67% xe2x80x9cpurexe2x80x9d liquid albumen. The albumen comprises 12% dry solids and 88% water.
With regard to the yolk, it is difficult to completely separate the yolk from all of the albumen. In a normal commercial operation where the yolk and albumen are separated some of the albumen will remain attached to the outer surface of the yolk, and the xe2x80x9cseparatedxe2x80x9d yolk is actually 33 parts xe2x80x9cpure yolkxe2x80x9d and 7 parts albumen. Thus, in a commercial sense when this separating process takes place, the albumen component is actually about 60% of the total egg mass, while the yolk component is 40% (33 parts yolk and 7 parts albumen). This 40 parts yolk is 43% solids and 57% water.
There are various commercial applications for use of the yolk by itself and also the albumen by itself. One obvious example of this is that the albumen of several eggs is used without the yolk to make an angel food cake. When the albumen is used separately as a food product, it is often dried before shipment. One of the benefits of this is that since the unprocessed albumen is only 12% solid, dehydrating the albumen substantially reduces the shipping weight. (It should be noted, however, even after the albumen is dried there is still a residual water content which is bound more tightly in the albumen powder, and this is about 8% of the total weight of the dried albumen). Thus, when we include this 8% moisture of the 12% dried albumen, we find that albumen is 89% water and 11% solids.
However, albumen powder is quite difficult to recombine with the water to bring it back close to its original form (12% solids and 88% water). In mixing the albumen powder with the water, the albumen powder tends to form into cohesive globules or particles, where the outer layer of the albumen becomes wet and forms a barrier to the dry albumen interior. Thus, these various globules or particles must be physically sheared to break through this outer xe2x80x9cshellxe2x80x9d and in turn form this globule into smaller particles, with these in turn forming an outer wet layer that has a smaller but yet dry interior. Thus, there is required greater mixing time and also a mixing apparatus which can apply greater shearing action to break up the particles.
Further, quite often the drying of the yolk usually causes a partial loss of xe2x80x9cfunctionxe2x80x9d and taste. This loss of function can be minimized by using improved techniques in the process, but as a practical matter in a commercial environment, this still remains a drawback. This may also be true of dehydrating the albumen to a powdered form but improved processing substantially improves this.
When the egg is still in the shell (i.e. a shell egg) and delivered to the consumer as a shell egg, the egg is usually not pasteurized. However, when the egg is taken out of the shell, certain governmental regulations come into play, and this requires pasteurization. The pasteurization would normally exterminate or at least deactivate the pathogenic micro-organisms, and particularly salmonella. However, there may still be a certain amount of micro-organisms which, though not pathogenic, still have the capability of causing spoilage. Then, even though the whole egg or the yolk and/or albumen are pasteurized, in subsequent handling of the same, such as mixing and/or further processing, in a commercial operation it is often difficult to maintain proper isolation from micro-organisms that subsequently contaminate the egg product.
By way of further background information, the foaming capability of the whole egg and also the albumen separately and the yolk separately is of interest. The albumen, by itself has quite good foaming or whipping capability. However, when a small amount of yolk is added to the albumen (e.g. as little as 1% yolk to 99% albumen), the foaming ability is greatly diminished. Then when higher concentrations of yolk are provided, the foaming ability increases, until we have a pure yolk, without any albumen. The foaming capability of the yolk without albumen, is surprisingly about the same as the pure albumen.
The foaming capability is measured by what is called the xe2x80x9cwhipxe2x80x9d test which is performed as follows. The basic whip procedure for the whip test used in determining the foaming characteristics of the egg product will be described later herein.
As discussed above, a completely dehydrated egg or egg product in a powdered form has the advantages of a longer shelf life and reduced shipping and storage costs. Drying methods of the prior art included spray drying and freeze drying. The spray drying method is difficult to perform as it requires stringent control of temperature and humidity and the process is adversely affected by changes in the weather. Furthermore, as discussed above, dehydrated egg products of the prior art have demonstrated poor functionality. As well, dehydrated egg products of the prior art have demonstrated poor taste, texture and appearance when reconstituted for use in cooked egg products. Accordingly, a need exists for an improved dehydrated egg product which, when reconstituted, can be used to prepare cooked eggs which better approximate fresh eggs in taste, texture and appearance.
In accordance with this invention there is provided a liquid concentrate comprising a liquid egg component, having a liquid yolk, liquid albumen, or combinations thereof; and a particulate solid component selected from a group comprising animal derived protein, modified animal derived protein, vegetable derived protein, modified vegetable protein or combinations thereof. In a preferred form of the liquid concentrate, the particulate solid component comprises dried particulate albumen or particulate whey protein concentrate or combinations thereof.
The liquid concentrate is characterized in that the particulate solid component is dispersed in the liquid egg component and the concentrate can be mixed with water to make a concentrate/water mixture.
In one embodiment, the liquid egg component comprises primarily egg yolk, In another embodiment the liquid component comprises predominantly albumen.
In the preferred form, the concentrate has a foaming capability such that when the product is subjected to a whip test, the specific gravity of the product developed by the whip test is no greater than about 0.6 and desirably no greater than 0.5, more desirably no greater than 0.4. The preferred range is about 0.25 and 0.35.
In another preferred embodiment, the concentrate comprises an ingredient or ingredients which lowers water activity of the concentrate which substantially inhibits activity of the micro-organism to enhance shelf life of the concentrate.
More specifically, such ingredients to lower the water activity comprises sugar, sugars, salt, salts, and/or combinations of the same. The sugar can include sucrose, glucose, fructose, dextrose, lactose, maltodextrin and combinations thereof.
The salts include salt, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, citric, lactic, sorbic, malic, adipic, fumaric or other food grade organic acids, potassium sorbate, sodium or calcium propionate, sodium benzoate.
In the method of making the liquid concentrate, there is first provided the liquid egg component as described above. The next step is the mixing of the particulate solid component with the liquid component, this being done to have a sufficient dispersion of the solid component so that the concentrate is characterized in that the concentrate made up of the particulate solid component and the liquid egg component can be readily mixed with water to make a concentrate/water mixture.
A further aspect of the present invention comprises a process for making a food product, by making the liquid concentrate in the manner described above, adding water to the concentrate and mixing therewith to make a reconstituted mixture, and combining the reconstituted mixture with other ingredients to make the food product.
In one embodiment, at least one of the ingredients which is combined with the reconstituted mixture is flour and the food product is a bakery product.
In another embodiment the reconstituted mixture is mixed with ingredients to make mayonnaise.
A still further embodiment of the process for making the food product includes mixing the water and the concentrate in a manner to cause these, either alone or in combination with other food ingredients, to foam, and combining the foam mixture with the other ingredients to make a product having a foam structure.
A still further aspect of the invention provides for a process for drying the liquid egg concentrate to produce a dehydrated egg product.
There is also provided a dehydrated egg product produced by the process for drying the liquid egg concentrate and a food product prepared using the dehydrated egg product.